Highland Bear (Book 4)

Chapter 10

AN - Hi everyone, I have just put Highland Dream forward for the Wattys! Exciting times, here is a chapter for you, and me to celebrate plucking up the courage to put it forward, you all gave such great feedback on highland dream, so thanks! Enjoy the chapter, Az x

Chapter 10

               

                Rohesia wrung her hands pacing back and forth a little. Four steps forward, sharp about turn, fours steps back the opposite way. She had spent the last half an hour pacing this way. The tiny room in which she slept was more cage than ever at that moment. She had told him she wished to rest, but what she could not take was watching as he worried himself, but would not tell her any of what he worried of. However, she could not think of it at that moment, she was more worried over the fact that Alfred was still within when he should have left hours ago. With each passing moment she was losing her nerve. She was not sure if she could go through with her deal, even if she had been the one to make it.

               

                Worrying her bottom lip with her teeth as she paced, she could feel the frustration boiling up inside of her. Making her antsy and unable to sit and be calm as she could have done at any other point in her life. She was nervous and could not hide it from the vigilant Alfred, even in his own preoccupation he was starting to notice her unusual behaviour, feigning a pain to the head would not hide her true issue for long, but it gave her some time to try and gain some composure for the first time since she had waved Artair off. Well, not literally, but from the moment he walked out of the door this feeling had been creeping up within her.

               

                She was terrified that Artair would turn up with Alfred still in. But then he had promised he would know, and only come when he had gone. She could not help but believe him in that, while at the same time still be completely terrified that she was going to have to deal with Alfred defending her against one who was…safe. She would have to give Alfred a reason, and she could not tell him of her thoughts. The disappointment would tear her apart, and without his full support she knew she could not survive. Whilst something had gone wrong in his negotiations, she knew that he would not give up until his task was complete. She would be married as soon as she could be, and to someone he thought would treat her well. He just did not know who at that moment, and as it was, that meant she still wanted the control over who she could give herself too for that first time. Even if it was the only time before her duty as wife took over.

               

                The thought of it being a frail old male with no teeth and a hygiene problem made her want to gag. She had nothing against the older male, nothing at all. In fact she had loved the time she spent with the elderly stable hand her father had kept, he had not minded her loss of hearing, and had helped her understand words by the reading of lips. But he had been old enough to be her grandfather, and his hands had been twisted and painful while he tried to work as hard as possible in gratitude to her father letting him stay on in his job. It was the thought of actually marrying one as old and wrinkled as he. She would do her duty, it was how she had been brought up, and she could do nothing to the contrary. But she would do it her way.